The Queensland licences, and the phone line to a school

Licensed, or employing someone who is

Under the Medicines and Poisons Act 2019, pest management activity that uses a pesticide or a fumigant is reserved to someone holding a current pest management licence.

A person must not offer to carry out a pest management activity for a pest management business unless they hold a pest management licence, or employ someone else who holds one to carry out the activity.

The maximum penalty for offering without either is 200 penalty units.

From the customer’s side the rule is the same: anyone carrying out pest control activities for a fee must be licensed, because the pesticides used can be hazardous to people and pets.

The licence is issued on training. A technician is issued one only after gaining qualifications appropriate to the kind of pest control work they plan to do.

The qualifications themselves sit in an approved standard.

For the Act’s own purposes, the department has approved a standard called Competency requirements for licensed technicians undertaking pest management activities with pesticides and fumigants, version 2.

Source: Queensland Health, pest management technicians; Queensland legislation, Medicines and Poisons Act 2019; Queensland Health, seeking pest management services fact sheet; Queensland legislation, Medicines and Poisons (Pest Management Activities) Regulation 2021.

What the licence names

A Queensland licence authorises its holder to carry out the pest management activities stated in the licence, using a fumigant or pesticide stated in the licence.

Those stated activities have a name of their own. A pest management licence sets out the activities its holder may complete, which are also called authorisations.

The authorisations available include:

• Urban pests at a high-risk place (for example, livestock farming, food manufacturing)
• Urban pests at a sensitive place (for example, residential aged care facilities, schools)

Source: Queensland legislation, Medicines and Poisons Act 2019; Queensland Health, pest management technicians.

Supervised by phone at a sensitive place

A technician carrying out work at a high-risk or sensitive place must comply with the activity risk management plan and either hold the authorisation for that place or be supervised by a technician who holds it.

Because a licence and an authorisation are different things, this is not a trainee’s rule.

The licence makes a person a technician; the authorisation is what permits work at places the regulation treats as high-risk or sensitive.

The supervision may be at a distance.

Supervision at these places does not have to be onsite directly, Queensland Health says, and technicians can be supervised using an electronic communications device, for example a phone or two-way radio.

It is not only a rule for the visit.

During the activity, technicians must follow the activity risk management plan and, where necessary, contact an authorised technician to supervise the work or advise on anything they are unsure of.

Queensland Health notes two exceptions.

Timber pests and pest birds sit outside it, so their treatment does not need the high-risk or sensitive place authorisation, and no activity risk management plan is required for them at this stage.

The places are defined, not just described.

In the regulation’s dictionary, a sensitive place means a building used for providing aged care, child care or schooling, or used as a hospital, and it includes land next to the building used for the same purposes.

A building used for schooling is a sensitive place.

A technician without the authorisation for such places works at one under the supervision of a technician who holds it, and that supervision, Queensland Health says, can be by phone or two-way radio.

Queensland’s trainee rules sit in the regulation itself.

The Medicines and Poisons (Pest Management Activities) Regulation 2021 defines a pest management trainee as an approved person who is undertaking a course about pest management that would enable them to obtain a qualification in pest management.

Its section 38 sets the supervision, and it begins with who it covers.

It applies when a trainee is carrying out a pest management activity the Act lets the trainee do under supervision, and a licensed technician authorised for that activity is carrying out the activity with, and supervising, the trainee.

The technician must either directly supervise the trainee or indirectly supervise them.

Indirect supervision needs the technician to be reasonably satisfied that the trainee is competent enough to be indirectly supervised, and that the health and safety of the trainee or another person would not be endangered.

Source: Queensland Health, licence activities for high-risk and sensitive places; Queensland Health, pest management technicians; Queensland legislation, Medicines and Poisons (Pest Management Activities) Regulation 2021.

The card at the door

Queensland keeps the licence visible. A licensee carries a photographic identity card, and the card states the holder’s name, their licence number, the dates of issue and expiry, and the activities the licence covers.

The card is checkable away from the door as well. To check whether an individual holds a pest management technician licence, Queensland Health’s advice is to call its Health Protection Branch on (07) 3328 9310.

For high-risk or sensitive place work, the licence can also gain a mark of its own. An application to amend a licence for those places must include evidence of competencies and the applicable amendment fee.

Source: Queensland Health, seeking pest management services; Queensland Health, licence activities for high-risk and sensitive places.

Termites add a second licence

Termite work raises a second regulator. When applying a chemical system, a QBCC licence is required in addition to a government-issued occupational pest control operator’s licence.

Supervising or performing termite management chemical work also requires a Queensland pest management licence from the Department of Health, the QBCC says, so those jobs carry two cards.

For a householder, Queensland Health’s advice runs the same way: for termite advice, a report on termite management systems, or the installation of a system in a new building, check that the technician has a QBCC licence.

The QBCC licence comes in addition to the pest management technician licence.

Source: QBCC, termite management systems for homeowners and builders; QBCC, termite management, chemical; Queensland Health, seeking pest management services.

Who may treat your home in Queensland is decided by Queensland Health.